Status: In Time
To Caress My Day
Chapter 263: I'll Make It So
Twigs received a call from her boyfriend, Seth, on a gray Friday afternoon. She’d just got back into her apartment from meeting up with another fellow artist who just so happened to be a visual artist and animator by the name of Jesse. Having encountered her through mutual friends and connections, the two got to chatting when they bumped into each other at a coffee shop a couple of days ago. Conversing with the talented woman sparked a clever idea in Twigs who begged for Jesse to collaborate with her on a music video that would be the first single released off of her EP 2. Fortunately, Jess had accepted her offer! Today was another meet-up to finalize the video that Twigs hoped would be ready to launch on her YouTube next month. She’d been putting her all into this video, the drive mainly roused from her mother’s cancer. Something had to draw her attention elsewhere or she’d soon have a mental breakdown. The longer her mother carried this disease the sooner Twigs felt she was at death's door.
Shaking that daunting nightmare from her focus, Twigs recovered her ringing phone from her coat pocket as soon as she locked her apartment door behind her and discarded her keys into the bowl on her side table. She ignored the famished growl of her stomach as she shrugged out of her coat, and tossed it onto the left end of her couch as she took the other end. As starved as she was, she couldn't afford dinner tonight, not when the new landlords were upping the prices on everything! “Hey, baby! I’ve missed you!”
“There’s my Pixe! I’ve missed you too, you have no fucking idea how much.” Seth warmly voiced, rubbing a hand over the other side of his sluggish face as he walked around his Hotel in Las Vegas. At the same time, there was a knock on his door, signaling his requested meal had arrived. Crossing the marbled floors, he asked his girlfriend. “But don’t let me get to whining over it again. How’ve you been doing, love?”
Twigs froze from where she was curled up on her couch with a pillow on her lap. She should’ve expected that he would want an update on her life. Seth has never been the type of thoughtless person who only wanted to talk about themselves. Tapping her fingertips on her full bottom lip, Twigs quickly tried to skate over her life as vaguely as possible without him catching on. “Oh, you know, a little of this and that. Music is coming along nice and low. I’ve been teaming up with a woman named Jesse on my next music video from EP2, she’s an animator. And um, yeah that’s about it. Tell me, what’s going on over there in Las Vegas? Are you guys living it up like it’s your last week on earth or what?”
“THEY are. I have decided to stay clear away from any alcohol for the duration of my trip, just in case I get into any amount of trouble you won’t forgive me for.” Seth updated Twigs as he tipped the hushed valuable waiter then politely walked him back to the door. Shutting the door behind him, he lamented to his girlfriend. “Jesus Christ, woman, I miss the hell out of you, you know that right?”
“I miss you too.” Twigs whispered to Seth, resisting the tears that came with his confession. If he missed her as much as she missed him, then he was gradually rotting inside with every minute they were apart. The sound of his voice alone made her wanna sob from missing him.
“Have you received any updates on your mother?” Seth inquired tentatively, knowing it was a highly sensitive subject for Twigs. Rolling the food cart to the couch overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, he settled himself down and parked the tray right in front of him so it obstructed the superb million-dollar view from his sight. He wanted to concentrate on his girlfriend right now, not the scenery outside.
“Yeah, I have.” Twigs confirmed with a nod, brushing a shed tear that managed to escape down her cheek. Straightening up on the couch, she expounded on what she’d learned since they last spoke. “I was kinda there for my mother’s last appointment, not in person but on the speaker phone, you know? And…the Doctor can’t get a precise diagnosis of her cancer from her biopsy. He believes mom should go ahead and get a Lobectomy anyway.”
Seth could recognize exactly what a Lobectomy was, considering he’d been reading up on anything he could when it came to Thyroid cancer during his free time which was becoming more and more limited as time went on. With a chunk of seasoned buttered bread in his hand, he chewed in deep thought. He wanted to pay for Araceli’s operation, but he didn’t know if his girlfriend would let him. It was worth a try asking. “Tahliah, can I pay for the operation since you guys got the biopsy already covered?”
“You can.” Twigs accepted with zero dispute on her part, her eyes turning to her right where her oversized dark coat had been dumped on the couch.
Letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Seth grinned at his victory. “Thank you, Pixie.”
“It’s fine, Seth. Really.” Twigs assured him, not wanting him to fear she might backtrack on him.
“Got a date picked out yet?” Seth inquired, ditching the seasoned bread back on his plate to feel around for his phone to check on his calendar before remembering he was already on it. Cursing, he slapped a hand to his forehead.
“Later in the month or next month.” Twigs reported, slipping a hand down her now aching belly.
“Okaaay…” Seth drawled out, his mind visualizing his schedule to see if he could rearrange things around so he could attend Araceli’s surgery. “Let me se-”
“I’m scared for my mother, Seth.” Twigs whispered brokenly to him, likely disclosing the tears she’d been battling back since she first heard his voice over the phone. She knew she should've kept her mouth shut on the issue, but she couldn’t! It was her mother! A flood of quiet tears took that moment to stream down her cheeks, and so she used her long-sleeved sweater to blot at the tears and incoming snot all the while refusing to sniffle like a baby. She couldn’t let him hear her so helpless when she wished to expound further on what she said. “I know…I know the Doctor said this is just a minor cancer, I know that. But I can’t help this paralyzing fear that is always eating away at my heart that I could lose her at any given moment. What if the Doctor is wrong?”
Having been going for his glass of water, Seth set it right back down at the sound of his girlfriend holding back her tears. His instinct was to comfort her in the best way he possibly could. “Hey, baby, everything is okay, you hear me? You’re not gonna lose your mother.”
“B-But what if it’s not okay, Seth?” Twigs whispered, her breathing coming in fast as the hysteria began to set in prematurely. Tomorrow wasn’t even her mother’s surgery and she was hyperventilating as if she was in the same room of the operation, watching it take place before her very eyes. “What if this procedure doesn’t work? What then?”
Seth knew he could go back and forth with Twigs all day and night that everything would be fine, and get nowhere with her. This fear that was deeply ingrained in her wasn’t gonna go away with assurances from him or any damn Doctors. She needed to see for herself that everything would turn out right. But it wouldn’t be practical for him to wholeheartedly believe that everything would be fine without regarding the cons. Unfortunately, those could be very real themselves no matter how unwelcoming they were. “If it doesn’t work out then…we'll just have to jump to a Thyroidectomy next.”
Twigs recalled what a Thyroidectomy was. A 1-2 hour procedure where a Doctor would surgically extract the whole Thyroid gland. It was usually the next option if they found out the cancer spread. Her mother’s Doctor had clarified all this too, especially when Twigs grilled him for a Plan B just in case. In a small voice she didn’t recognize as her own, she whimpered. “O-Okay.”
“Remember, Tahliah, when your mother gets her procedure done it’ll be by a team of specialists that excel in the Thyroid Cancer department.” Seth softly reminded her.
Twigs nodded along, her mind picturing herself sitting in a sterile cold white waiting room with no one around to hold her hand and to regularly tell her everything would be okay while the clock on the wall ticked down to the final moments. God, she didn’t want to be alone when that day came. “Seth, can I…can I ask for a favor?”
“Anything.” Seth vowed wholeheartedly. “Ask anything and I’ll make it so.”
“Can you be there when the day comes...for support?” Twigs asked, sniffing back tears. “And with my friends? I can’t be alone in this, not then. Please.”
Seth couldn’t vow that he’d make it, not in his line of work, but he could make it to where she wouldn’t be alone at all. “I’ll make it happen for you, Tahliah. I promise you won’t be alone whether or not I’m able to make it. Your friends and family will be right there by your side every step of the way.”
“Thank you, Seth.” Twigs whispered, closing her eyes in solace, her heart pounding. “I love you so much.”
Smiling to himself for giving her a state of ease, Seth whispers back. “Don’t thank me, Pixie, it’s no problem. And I love you too, more than you’ll ever know.”
Shaking that daunting nightmare from her focus, Twigs recovered her ringing phone from her coat pocket as soon as she locked her apartment door behind her and discarded her keys into the bowl on her side table. She ignored the famished growl of her stomach as she shrugged out of her coat, and tossed it onto the left end of her couch as she took the other end. As starved as she was, she couldn't afford dinner tonight, not when the new landlords were upping the prices on everything! “Hey, baby! I’ve missed you!”
“There’s my Pixe! I’ve missed you too, you have no fucking idea how much.” Seth warmly voiced, rubbing a hand over the other side of his sluggish face as he walked around his Hotel in Las Vegas. At the same time, there was a knock on his door, signaling his requested meal had arrived. Crossing the marbled floors, he asked his girlfriend. “But don’t let me get to whining over it again. How’ve you been doing, love?”
Twigs froze from where she was curled up on her couch with a pillow on her lap. She should’ve expected that he would want an update on her life. Seth has never been the type of thoughtless person who only wanted to talk about themselves. Tapping her fingertips on her full bottom lip, Twigs quickly tried to skate over her life as vaguely as possible without him catching on. “Oh, you know, a little of this and that. Music is coming along nice and low. I’ve been teaming up with a woman named Jesse on my next music video from EP2, she’s an animator. And um, yeah that’s about it. Tell me, what’s going on over there in Las Vegas? Are you guys living it up like it’s your last week on earth or what?”
“THEY are. I have decided to stay clear away from any alcohol for the duration of my trip, just in case I get into any amount of trouble you won’t forgive me for.” Seth updated Twigs as he tipped the hushed valuable waiter then politely walked him back to the door. Shutting the door behind him, he lamented to his girlfriend. “Jesus Christ, woman, I miss the hell out of you, you know that right?”
“I miss you too.” Twigs whispered to Seth, resisting the tears that came with his confession. If he missed her as much as she missed him, then he was gradually rotting inside with every minute they were apart. The sound of his voice alone made her wanna sob from missing him.
“Have you received any updates on your mother?” Seth inquired tentatively, knowing it was a highly sensitive subject for Twigs. Rolling the food cart to the couch overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, he settled himself down and parked the tray right in front of him so it obstructed the superb million-dollar view from his sight. He wanted to concentrate on his girlfriend right now, not the scenery outside.
“Yeah, I have.” Twigs confirmed with a nod, brushing a shed tear that managed to escape down her cheek. Straightening up on the couch, she expounded on what she’d learned since they last spoke. “I was kinda there for my mother’s last appointment, not in person but on the speaker phone, you know? And…the Doctor can’t get a precise diagnosis of her cancer from her biopsy. He believes mom should go ahead and get a Lobectomy anyway.”
Seth could recognize exactly what a Lobectomy was, considering he’d been reading up on anything he could when it came to Thyroid cancer during his free time which was becoming more and more limited as time went on. With a chunk of seasoned buttered bread in his hand, he chewed in deep thought. He wanted to pay for Araceli’s operation, but he didn’t know if his girlfriend would let him. It was worth a try asking. “Tahliah, can I pay for the operation since you guys got the biopsy already covered?”
“You can.” Twigs accepted with zero dispute on her part, her eyes turning to her right where her oversized dark coat had been dumped on the couch.
Letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Seth grinned at his victory. “Thank you, Pixie.”
“It’s fine, Seth. Really.” Twigs assured him, not wanting him to fear she might backtrack on him.
“Got a date picked out yet?” Seth inquired, ditching the seasoned bread back on his plate to feel around for his phone to check on his calendar before remembering he was already on it. Cursing, he slapped a hand to his forehead.
“Later in the month or next month.” Twigs reported, slipping a hand down her now aching belly.
“Okaaay…” Seth drawled out, his mind visualizing his schedule to see if he could rearrange things around so he could attend Araceli’s surgery. “Let me se-”
“I’m scared for my mother, Seth.” Twigs whispered brokenly to him, likely disclosing the tears she’d been battling back since she first heard his voice over the phone. She knew she should've kept her mouth shut on the issue, but she couldn’t! It was her mother! A flood of quiet tears took that moment to stream down her cheeks, and so she used her long-sleeved sweater to blot at the tears and incoming snot all the while refusing to sniffle like a baby. She couldn’t let him hear her so helpless when she wished to expound further on what she said. “I know…I know the Doctor said this is just a minor cancer, I know that. But I can’t help this paralyzing fear that is always eating away at my heart that I could lose her at any given moment. What if the Doctor is wrong?”
Having been going for his glass of water, Seth set it right back down at the sound of his girlfriend holding back her tears. His instinct was to comfort her in the best way he possibly could. “Hey, baby, everything is okay, you hear me? You’re not gonna lose your mother.”
“B-But what if it’s not okay, Seth?” Twigs whispered, her breathing coming in fast as the hysteria began to set in prematurely. Tomorrow wasn’t even her mother’s surgery and she was hyperventilating as if she was in the same room of the operation, watching it take place before her very eyes. “What if this procedure doesn’t work? What then?”
Seth knew he could go back and forth with Twigs all day and night that everything would be fine, and get nowhere with her. This fear that was deeply ingrained in her wasn’t gonna go away with assurances from him or any damn Doctors. She needed to see for herself that everything would turn out right. But it wouldn’t be practical for him to wholeheartedly believe that everything would be fine without regarding the cons. Unfortunately, those could be very real themselves no matter how unwelcoming they were. “If it doesn’t work out then…we'll just have to jump to a Thyroidectomy next.”
Twigs recalled what a Thyroidectomy was. A 1-2 hour procedure where a Doctor would surgically extract the whole Thyroid gland. It was usually the next option if they found out the cancer spread. Her mother’s Doctor had clarified all this too, especially when Twigs grilled him for a Plan B just in case. In a small voice she didn’t recognize as her own, she whimpered. “O-Okay.”
“Remember, Tahliah, when your mother gets her procedure done it’ll be by a team of specialists that excel in the Thyroid Cancer department.” Seth softly reminded her.
Twigs nodded along, her mind picturing herself sitting in a sterile cold white waiting room with no one around to hold her hand and to regularly tell her everything would be okay while the clock on the wall ticked down to the final moments. God, she didn’t want to be alone when that day came. “Seth, can I…can I ask for a favor?”
“Anything.” Seth vowed wholeheartedly. “Ask anything and I’ll make it so.”
“Can you be there when the day comes...for support?” Twigs asked, sniffing back tears. “And with my friends? I can’t be alone in this, not then. Please.”
Seth couldn’t vow that he’d make it, not in his line of work, but he could make it to where she wouldn’t be alone at all. “I’ll make it happen for you, Tahliah. I promise you won’t be alone whether or not I’m able to make it. Your friends and family will be right there by your side every step of the way.”
“Thank you, Seth.” Twigs whispered, closing her eyes in solace, her heart pounding. “I love you so much.”
Smiling to himself for giving her a state of ease, Seth whispers back. “Don’t thank me, Pixie, it’s no problem. And I love you too, more than you’ll ever know.”